Among the Enemy

Chapter Seven

As well as he could, Matthias tried raising Percy's head up again. But it was impossible to balance Alia on his lap and lift Percy at the same time.

"Percy, no, I need you," he argued.

He remembered how Samuel had always said, "God will never give you more than you can bear." But how could Matthias bear this? Both Percy and Alia injured and in such great pain and maybe dying…

"Oh, God, no," Matthias whispered, or maybe he was crying. He reached out for Percy's leg again, as if he believed his plea would make the wound miraculously heal itself. But blood was still seeping out along the gash in Percy's pajama pants. Lots of blood. Percy whimpered and jerked away from Matthias's hand.

Shouldn't touch, germs, infection, Matthias thought in a jumbled way. He was too horrified to think clearly, but the words "soap and water" fought their way into his mind.

I’m in the wilderness! Where am I supposed to find soap and water? he wanted to shout. But then the answer came to him.

The cabin.

If Matthias had stopped to consider how hard it would be to get both Alia and Percy down to the cabin, he might have given up right then. But the thought that kept cycling through his mind was, Can't leave Alia, can't leave Percy, can't leave Alia, can't leave Percy. . If he put Alia down to carry Percy, she might freeze to death before he could come back. If he left Percy behind and took Alia first, he might not be able to find Percy again in the dark. And then he'd have to wait for the morning light, and Percy could have bled to death by then.

What if Percy bled to death anyhow?

Don't think about that, he commanded himself.

He forced himself to concentrate on shifting Alia's limp body to one side, so he could support her with just one arm looped around her waist. With his other arm he reached down — awkwardly, almost toppling over — and wedged his hand under Percy's armpit. And then he began dragging both of them downhill.

He made slow, torturous progress, and both of them whimpered and moaned and cried out in their sleep, in pain. He was of two minds about their cries. At least they were still alive — but, oh, how could he be the one hurting them?

The trek down the hill took so long, Matthias was almost surprised when he lifted his head and saw a wall of logs directly in front of him. He had a moment of worry-ing that there might be Population Police guards remaining behind in the cabin — or perhaps more rebels left alive who might feel no friendlier toward Matthias than they did toward the Population Police. But he was too desperate to give that worry much thought.

"Just a — little — farther," he grunted to his two friends, even though they probably couldn't hear him.

He dragged them around to the front of the cabin and then lifted them, one by one, over the splintered door.

Inside the cabin was utter darkness.

Well, of course it is. What did I expect?

The last, lingering light of dusk illuminated only the first few inches inside the shattered doorway. Even as Matthias huddled there with Percy and Alia, that light seemed to fade and disappear.

We've survived in darkness before, Matthias reminded himself. For most of their time in Population Police prison, they'd been in an underground dungeon and had gone for days without seeing sunlight.

Percy and Alia weren't injured then, Matthias thought. And we had candles that we could light in an emergency.

Maybe there were candles in the cabin as well.

Even though every muscle in his body cried out in exhaustion, Matthias forced himself to reach out and grope around on the floor. He tried not to think about how many people had just died in the cabin. saying that somehow gave him the courage to keep reaching out, keep grasping for hope. All he asked for was a single candle and a single match, although a flashlight would be easier to work with. And he certainly wouldn't complain if he found medical supplies just lying around, waiting for him….

At first he found only splinters. The floor was made of rough wooden planks that hadn't been sanded and didn't fit together well. The gaps between the planks were so wide that Matthias began to fear an entire book of matches could be hidden between two planks and Matthias would never know. So he fell into a pattern of sweeping his entire hand across a plank (carefully, trying to avoid the splin-ters), then wedging his fingers down between the cracks before moving on to the next plank.

That was how he discovered the secret latch.:

Matthias didn't know what it was when his fingers brushed it, tucked away on the underside of one of the planks. But it was the first thing he'd touched that wasn't wood, and it puzzled him: Who would put a round, hard knob underneath a floor? He felt all around it, pushing it from side to side. When he pushed it to the right, something clicked.

And then the floor rose up before him.